Port St. John murder victim identified

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Department has identified the remains of a decomposed murder victim from October 2005.

John B. Gavin, 67, of Lakeland was murdered and his body buried off of Carole Avenue in Port St. John more than a year ago. Investigators estimate that Gavin’s body was buried two to three months before the discovery, which made identification nearly impossible.

The remains were sent to the University of Florida in October where a forensic artist reconstructed what the victim may have looked like. Now police are using Gavin’s driver’s license photo, which they believe was updated recently before his death.

Ultimately, it was Gavin’s robbery conviction in 1997 that allowed investigators to identify him. Enough DNA was extracted to run through a nationwide database, which positively identified Gavin.